


we were both born today.

by lumoshyperion



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Baby Scorpius Malfoy, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 19:25:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19091536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumoshyperion/pseuds/lumoshyperion
Summary: The day that Scorpius is born is the day that Draco and Astoria start living.





	we were both born today.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt is from buildyourwalls: "the day that Scorpius is born is the day that draco and astoria start living. Totally would love feelings about the birth, and how being a new parent is hard but wonderful, and all the happy feelings about that." Title is from the song 'Everything Changes', which is from Waitress.

Draco was sitting in one of the many hallways of St Mungo’s, watching wearily as staff and patients walked by without looking at him. It had been a long night. He couldn’t say when Astoria had woken him up with an expression of excitement and fear on her face, to tell him it was time to go to the hospital. It felt like a different life, a different time. It was all so far away. Surely he had been pacing the hall for days, not hours?

They’d been preparing for this moment for months. All they would need at the hospital was packed at the foot of their bed. Everything, every eventuality, had been discussed and picked apart and planned ad nauseam. But it all fell woefully short when the time finally arrived. Draco had felt utterly helpless and incapable in the face of his wife’s distress.

Seeing Astoria grow weaker over the past nine months, spending night after night watching the rise and fall of her breathing in fear of the day it will stop, and carrying her limp body as they arrived at the hospital - it was all impossible to bear. It was never that he did not want a child. It was only that he loved Astoria too dearly to see her suffer.

“It’s a boy,” one of the healers had told him - finally. “A healthy baby boy.”

“And Astoria?” He asked, a little too forcefully.

“She’s doing as well as we could hope for, Mr. Malfoy. You can come in and see her now.”

They had booked a private room ahead of the birth. With its comfortable chairs, sunny windows, and large hospital bed - Astoria would want for nothing. It was in this bed that he found his wife, small and vulnerable amongst the mountain of sheets and pillows. In her arms was their child - their son - wrapped in a bundle of yellow blankets.

Carefully, Draco sat down on the edge of the bed. The bundle made a small, gurgling noise, and Astoria smiled. He knew that she was weak. Over their time together, Draco had seen the blood curse at its worst. Social events called off when Astoria could barely walk, nights spent awake until the early hours of the morning trying to relieve the pain that kept her from sleep. But he had never seen her as pale and withdrawn as she was now. And yet she still smiled. In that moment, as in many moments before, he was struck by the unwavering courage of his wife.

He wanted to press kisses on her lips, her forehead, her neck, her arms - everywhere it ached - until she drifted into the deepest, most restful sleep. He wanted to lay everything he had at her feet, as if any of it measured up to what she had just gone through. The determination had not left her eyes from the moment she had insisted that she wanted a child and it was still there, shining through the pain and weariness in her face.

But then, as he shifted closer to her, Draco saw his son for the first time, and everything else melted away. He was all rosy skin and wisps of soft, silvery hair. His eyes were closed and his fingers - the smallest Draco had ever seen - were wrapped around his mother's ring finger.

_"Scorpius," Astoria had said, weeks before as they discussed baby names over breakfast. "I want to name him Scorpius."_

_"It's perfect," Draco replied, with a warm smile._

Unaware of his parent's glowing faces hovering above him - Scorpius gave a small yawn, before smacking his lips and going back to sleep. Draco reached out a hand, but instantly drew it back. He was so small, he couldn’t… he wouldn’t dare.

Before he could protest, Astoria sat up and pressed the baby into his arms. He froze as he peered down at the bundle, marvelling at how little he weighed and how small and dear he was. He could cup his head in the palm of his hand. Touching the back of his son's wrist in wonderment, Draco gasped as Scorpius immediately wrapped his fingers around the tip of his thumb and squeezed.

Draco had always struggled with the idea of fatherhood. It was a responsibility and a privilege he never expected, never wanted. There was always a fear that the shadow of his own father was an inescapable one. How could he knowingly inflict such a thing on a child? And did he deserve one? Had he earned that right? After all that had happened, after the second wizarding war and all that led to it, a child was the furthest thing from his mind. Of course, that was until he met Astoria.

But as he watched his son, his beautiful baby boy, he wondered - how could _he_ have made something like _this_? Something so innocent and pure as the driven snow. He had only known this little soul for mere moments, and yet he already knew he would guard it with his life. His world narrowed to that little room, and the two people he shared it with. Nothing else mattered.

He hadn't realized that he was crying until tears dripped off his chin and down onto the yellow blanket. He wiped his eyes with his free hand and swallowed the lump in his throat, still staring down at their child's sleeping face. 

He felt Astoria shift across the bed and lean on his back, her fingertips brushing the tears from his cheek. Draco looked over at her, taking in her pale skin and the faraway look in her red-rimmed eyes.

“Are you alright?” He asked, quietly. But Astoria only smiled, her chin resting on his shoulder. And then she reached over and brushed a kiss against his lips, before looking back down at Scorpius. Draco followed her gaze and watched as she stroked a thumb across his forehead.

“I’m just fine.”


End file.
